Star Tribune.com's "On the Job" blog will take a break for a spell as I temporarily cover the manufacturing beat while we figure out a few staff changes. Stay tuned for exciting announcements in the coming weeks and know that it's been an honor talking to all of you jobseekers, employers and economists who are rooting for better days ahead.

Employees received an average $30.69 per hour in wages and benefits for the month of March, according to new data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor.

The bulk of compensation - $21.27 an hour or 69.3 percent - came from wages and salaries. Benefits, such as vacation, health and disability insurance, provided the final 30.7 percent of $9.42 an hour.

Further analysis by the U.S. Labor Department found that private industry employees took home fatter wages than those who worked for state and local governments. On the flip side, government workers enjoyed bigger benefit packages.

As a result, total compensation averaged $28.78 an hour for private sector workers and $41.16 an hour for government workers.